The Dream Dealer in Russia

The Dream Dealer has been translated into Russian but this is no ordinary translation. Moscow teacher, Alex Shcherbacheva, inspired and masterminded a project involving 90 children from 14 different schools, from Moscow to Khabarovsk, to translate and illustrate the book.

Alex Shcherbacheva came across The Dream Dealer during a visit to the UK in 2012. When she discovered the author was a direct descendent of Russia’s favourite poet, Alexander Pushkin, she made up her mind to make the book available to a Russian-speaking audience. It was published in April 2014.

More recently two groups of Alex’s 10-year-old pupils (about 30 children) had to read the book as their task for the winter holidays. She then organised competitions for the best knowledge of all the tiniest details and characters; the best illustration; the best dramatic reading of an extract of the book; and the shortest retelling. This competition is also being held for the children aged 13-14.

Here are some of the winning illustrations (click the images to enlarge them).